


Anyone Lose a Dame?

by TriplePirouette



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26750407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: When Peggy saw the golden portal open in her apartment, she strapped her shoe back on and grabbed her pistol, thinking only one thing: This can’t be good.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Comments: 19
Kudos: 111





	Anyone Lose a Dame?

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting on my hard drive, unfinished, since Endgame came out. Last night I finished it. I hope you enjoy this little "How Peggy got to the future" story.

When Bruce snapped his fingers, he had only one thought running through his head: _Bring them back, bring them ALL back._

When Strange opened the portals, he had only one thought running through his mind as he called on every ounce of power he had: _Anyone who can help. Open the gates to anyone who can help._

When Peggy saw the golden portal open in her apartment one day after a long day of work, she strapped her half-removed shoe back on and grabbed her pistol, thinking only one thing: _This can’t be good._

So when Rocket nearly tripped over the brunette, sitting with her skirt over her knees, one of her high heels being brandished like a pick and the other fist locked tight around an empty pistol and shaking like a leaf, he said out loud exactly what went through his mind: “What the hell is a girl like you doing in a place like this?” He turned and shouted across the slowly recovering battlefield, “Hey! Anyone lose a dame?”

~*~

* * *

It was Bucky who turned toward them first. He hadn’t heard that word in decades and it pierced his eardrum like a long forgotten memory. He spun, expecting to see a familiar face of one of the Dora Milaje as he took long, heavy strides toward the guardian. He heard her voice before he saw her, and the voice seemed to stir the same pit that hearing Steve’s did: a long forgotten memory that didn’t have a place in the future. 

Her voice wavered furiously. “You’re talking.”

Rocket laughed. “And you look ready to vomit on yourself. My talents seem to be the least of your worries right now lady.”

With one more step he could see her around Rocket. He stopped short, blinking to make sure it wasn’t a crossed synapse or a long forgotten memory. He still didn’t trust his brain as much as Shuri did. Her eyes wide, she was talking with the disconcerting raccoon, still sitting and trembling with shock. “Peggy…”

Rocket heard the whisper and turned, pointing back and forth between the two. “You know her?”

Bucky fell into a jog, sliding into the dirt in front of her just as Groot ambled over to join Rocket. Peggy’s eyes glanced at Bucky’s arm in confusion, but she was overwhelmed when she saw what she had thought was a tree moving towards her. She dropped the shoe and pistol and starting sliding back, desperate to get away.

Nothing had made sense since she stepped through that glowing circle. Things happened on that field that she couldn’t comprehend, but she’d found herself standing on a side, fighting the best she could against literal monsters, and there had been something that made her…

Her mind itched…

Something had made her want to stay.

When the portals opened up and she had a chance to limp back to her apartment, she’d turned around and stayed. Her gut said there was something here.

Someone…

_Assemble…_

But when she tried to think of it, all she heard where the yells and explosions and she knew that she was so woefully unprepared but yet somehow…

“Peg, Peggy…” Bucky was reaching out to her, his hand open and his eyes disbelieving. “It’s ok.”

“I am Groot,” the tree put his arms out to the side and down, trying to be as non threatening as possible as Peggy grasped Bucky’s hand, squeezing tight.

She took a shaky breath, turning her eyes away from the tree and raccoon and toward the rest of the decimated battlefield. Ships she had never even dreamed of had exploded above her. People with amazing strength and powers had fought around her. All she had was nine rounds and a high heel, but she’d gotten her licks in. “Barnes, no matter what is going on, everything is most definitely not ‘ok’.”

He sighed, following her gaze to the devastation beyond them. “I guess you’re right about that.” He reached over, pulling her shoe close to them and wiping off the dirt before handing it to her. “Think you can get up?”

She let the shoe fall in favor of reaching for his metal arm. She slid her fingers over it, eyebrows wrinkling. “What…”

He pulled his hand back to hold hers gently. “It’s a long story. Long.” He picked up the shoe with his other hand, holding it out like a peace offering. “Come on.”

~*~

* * *

He stayed close as they picked their way through the frontline. She was following a half step behind, but he was prepared to catch her at any second. She was shaking like a leaf and turning her ankles on debris that disintegrated beneath each step. He wasn’t exactly sure where they were going, but there had to be somewhere that wasn’t as overwhelming as this for her.

He wanted to call out for Steve, but he’d seen his friend pick up the lifeless body of Tony and head west with it, a small procession following behind. He hadn’t known Tony well, still couldn’t fully process that he’d been responsible for Howard’s death, and had tried to stifle the complicated emotions rather than feel them as he had watched Steve walk away.

He stopped, looking across the horizon. Strange was opening portals, letting those who had fought return to their homes to look for those that had suddenly blinked back into existence. Shuri was organizing a group of the Dora to search for the wounded. Everything as far as he could see to his left was burnt and scorched, but to his right just a few hundred feet away were some trees that were still standing. He reached out and grabbed her hand, not caring if she wanted it or not. He pulled her after him, setting her in the shade seated on a toppled tree. The clouds were slowly disappearing, the smoke and ash were settling, and the stark light of day made her seem all that much more fragile.

“Just… stay here for a second, ok?”

Peggy’s eyes were focused on the battlefield, taking in how large it was, how expansive. She took a deep breath, nodding. “Barnes…”

“I’m not going far. Just over there…” He pointed, letting his right hand squeeze hers. She was definitely in shock, and he didn’t blame her one bit. She didn’t look much older than when he’d last seen her, and there was a big jump from “super soldier” to “fighting for humanity’s survival with aliens.”

She reached out, stopping him. “You were dead.”

He lifted the corner of his mouth in what was almost a smile. “Didn’t stick.”

He backed away from her, his heart pounding. He needed to get Steve, but he didn’t want to just radio for everyone to hear that while Pepper had lost the love of her life, Steve had miraculously gained his. He turned his back to her, looking back out to the field and searching for what his next move might be.

He jogged a few feet to catch Rocket, the guardians on a much more focused mission to join their teammates. “Rocket…”

He looked up but didn’t break stride. “How’s the dame?”

“I am Groot,” the tree spoke mournfully, his tone tired.

Rocket nodded, looking toward Peggy as she tried to set her hair to rights with a single-mindedness that betrayed just how shaken she was. “She does still look scared. Who is she?”

Bucky skipped past Rocket’s question. “I need you to bring me Steve, but don’t say anything about this in front of anyone.” He sighed, watching Strange from afar, worried the man would force Peggy back through a portal. “Just tell him I need to see him and send him over here.”

Rocket followed Bucky’s gaze to the portals. “Is she not wanting to go back? We can just toss her-“

Groot stopped, waving his hands furiously in a ‘no’ pattern. “I am Groot!”

“No, she will not break, Groot.” Rocket, kicked at him, getting him to move forward.

Bucky stepped in front of Rocket, blocking his path and gritting his teeth. “Just. Get. Me. Steve.”

~*~

* * *

Peggy’s ears were ringing with the echoes of the battle. It had been too loud and now it seemed far too quiet. She watched Barnes approach her and carefully sit on her left so that his flesh hand was closest to her.

“What’s the first question I should ask?” She wondered out loud. She meant it to be lighthearted, almost snide, but it still came out with an undercurrent of fear. Barnes was all at once familiar but also completely foreign. He was dead, and hadn’t had an amazing electronic arm when she’d last seen him. And generally trees and raccoons didn’t talk.

“No one question will give you a good answer.” He sniffed, leaning his elbows on his knees. “Maybe start with what year it is.”

Peggy nodded, watching as groups began to organize and comb through the rubble below them. She stared at the deep crevice in the grass that seemed to divide the reality of the battle from the idyllic green grass in front of her. “Ok, what year is it?”

“2023.”

She shuddered in a deep breath, her eyes turning to the small woman walking towards them. “It really is a long story then, isn’t it?”

Bucky nodded, his eyes on Wanda as she got closer. “Yeah.” He stood, waiting as Wanda joined them.

She looked at Peggy, but put her eyes back on Bucky when Peggy’s attempt at a smile seemed more terrified than sincere. “I’ve been sent to tell you that he’s unavailable.”

Bucky stepped forward, but Peggy could hear him. “He needs to be available.”

“He is not,” the girl was firm. She held his eyes and her ground. “He’ll meet you once clean-up is finished.”

He clenched his teeth. “Finished? That’s what he said?”

For the first time, Wanda noticed the woman was still shaking. “I’m headed to the south building to try to see if there are any supplies intact.” She tried to smile at her, but none of them had much left to give at the moment. “Maybe you could help me?”

Bucky’s lips tightened and he looked out at the battle field, frustrated. He turned and knelt in front of Peggy. “Can you… Can you go with Wanda?” He tiled his head towards the woman behind him. “I know you don’t know her but she can get you cleaned up and I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

Peggy swallowed hard, looking at the young girl who seemed exhausted and somehow much more held together than she was. “I can,” she said softly, much more softly than she had talked to Bucky. Peggy cleared her throat and forced a smile, even if the world still felt upside down. “Yes, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Bucky’s lips lifted in what was as close to a smile as he ever got anymore. “I’ll be back soon, I promise. Please, just… please don’t leave. Don’t go through any portals, ok?”

She swallowed hard. “I won’t.” Bucky stood to leave but she grabbed his metal hand, startling them both. He crouched down again, letting it rest gently against her fingers. “Tell me… were we…”

“What?”

“Were we on the right side?” She looked at the burnt mass of destruction over his shoulder, her eyes flooding over with tears. “The good side?”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah, we were both on the good side.”

~*~

* * *

  
  


He stalked through the rubble, his eyes narrowed as he passed through groups of people searching for survivors and others lifting out the dead. He asked the Dora for where Steve was last seen and threw Rocket halfway across the battlefield for his inability to get one thing right.

He left the scorched earth for a building that was still intact not too far away. The garage, he thought. Bucky slowed his approach but his determination didn’t change. He found Steve standing with Peter and Thor ringed on the outside of a group while a tighter ring surrounded what he only assumed was Tony’s body.

Steve turned at his approach. He shook his head and looked back towards Tony, a dismissal.

Bucky didn’t wait. He just wrapped his metal hand around the back of Steve’s neck and pulled him away from the group, leading him out of the building. Steve didn’t object until they were in the sunlight and out of hearing distance. “What the hell was that?”

Bucky didn’t slow them down. “I told Rocket to get you. He didn’t do a good job.”

Steve fought out of the grip, stepping away and looking his friend in the eyes. “Tony’s dead, Buck.”

Bucky didn’t flinch. “And Peggy’s alive.”

“I have to get back—" He stopped, his voice falling away as the words filtered through his consciousness. His mouth dropped open slowly, his question soft. “What?”

“She came through one of the portals. I found her after it was all over. She’s with-“

Steve was already moving towards the battlefield. “Where?”

~*~

* * *

Peggy felt like she was in one of those movies she’d seen about space. Crazy sets where there were too many-or in this case not enough- buttons to make anything really happen. It had to be for show. All of it had to be for show.

  1. That was the year Bucky had said.



Yet somehow, as the girl prattled on and touched buttons that weren’t buttons and screens floated in mid-air, it made more sense than she wanted to let on. After a moment Wanda turned, tilting her head and walking Peggy over to a small bathroom no bigger than a closet. “It’ll have to do for now. I’ll be just out here, getting first aid supplies together.”

Once inside with the door shut, Peggy finally felt like she could breathe. She looked at herself in the mirror, dirt and blood streaked across her face. Her hair knotted and tangled. She looked like she’d been through hell, and she was pretty sure she had been.

Her mind flashed to the creatures coming for her, the dog like beasts on all fours crashing in to her before she could pound them with what might have been a spear. It was broken and discarded, but it was better than her empty pistol. She’d managed to choke one, and take another’s eye, before she lost her weapon in the side of one that wouldn’t go down easy. It ran away, and she scrambled to pull a piece of twisted metal from the wreckage of the building, using it to hit them across the face like she’d hit cricket balls in the backyard with Michael.

There was a voice…

_Assemble…_

She flashed back to the little bathroom and Wanda’s rambling voice just outside the door. She turned the water on and started scrubbing. Once her face felt clean she knew she needed more. She needed to get the death and destruction off of her. She pulled off her shredded suit jacket and her white blouse and stripped to her slip, using a towel to reach any place she could. It felt good to take the grit out from between her toes and to get rid of her shredded stockings.

She put her hands under the cool running water and gulped down long mouthfuls until her stomach ached.

She looked at herself again, water dripping down her chin. She was, even just in her slip, much more presentable. She searched the drawers and found a comb and went about trying to do something, anything with her hair. It was filled with soot and ash and dried blood and slobber from those things, and brushing it out only made a mess on the floor. She did the best she could, and managed something presentable.

The knock startled her and she let out a screech.

“I’m sorry,” called Wanda. “Can I come in?” Peggy reached out and opened the door. A half smile at the girl’s expression. “You look much better. Do you feel ok?”

The accent wasn’t one Peggy was familiar with. She nodded, wringing her hands in front of her. “As good as can be expected, I think.”

Wanda looked her up and down. “Where… are you from?”

Peggy nearly laughed. Her slip and clothes couldn’t have been more contrasting to the woman’s sleek leather and the futuristic building they were in. “When, is apparently, the better question.”

Before she could say anything they heard a door open, and Wanda turned her head.

“Wanda?” His voice boomed, raw and broken and more captain than anything.

Peggy didn’t wait, she pushed past the girl, out into the room, and turned.

There he was.

Dirty.

Bleeding.

_Assemble…_

Her heart had known that voice as it boomed over the battlefield, even if she hadn’t seen his face.

He pulled his helmet off and it fell to the ground from numb fingers.

For two long breaths they looked at one another from across the room, afraid, disbelieving. She broke the silence first. “Steve?”

He ran to her, sweeping her in his arms as she clutched at him. Tears fell, she wasn’t sure who started crying first, or who kissed the other first, but by the time her feet touched the floor again her lips were locked with his and she’d never dreamed she could feel this happy.

He pulled away first. “You’re bleeding,” he whispered, his dirty hands swiping at her head where a small trickle had formed and leaving long, dark marks. “Shit.”

“Language,” she whispered, not trusting her voice and bringing back memories of Lehigh when he was still small and she was still in charge of making the soldiers look like clean-cut young men.

He kissed her again, desperate for the feel of her, knowing deep down his emotions were too raw, too full of love and loss and anger and adrenaline to be pure right now. He needed her, didn’t really care how she was here, and he was ashamed of having her when so many had lost so much.

Everywhere he touched her he left stains of dirt and soot on her clean white slip, her porcelain skin. He pulled away, hands unsure what to do but unwilling to dirty her further. From the corner of his eye he could see Bucky and Wanda slipping out, boxes in their arms to help those outside.

He didn’t care about outside right now.

She took his hand and slipped him into the small bathroom, sitting him on the toilet. He went, numbly.

First, she washed the streaks off her own face and dusted the dirt from her slip, then let the water run warm and rinsed the towel before sitting at his feet and taking his hands in hers, turning the white towel black with the dirt and grime and blood on them.

Each time the washcloth became too dirty to be useful she reached over, ran it under the water of the sink, and went back until all she could see was clean, white skin. She shifted, sitting on his lap and starting on his face as his arms wound around her.

“How are you here?” he wondered aloud, his eyes filled with tears.

She swiped gently at his cheek, her voice as matter of fact as if she were talking about the weather. “A golden glowing portal opened up in my kitchen and it seemed a good idea at the time to take my gun and go through.” She folded the towel, exposing another clean side and ran it over his jaw. She stopped, setting the towel aside and cradling his cheek. “Bucky said it was a long story, but,” her voice cracked and tears gathered in her eyes, “how are you alive, my darling?”

Steve kissed her instead of replying, his newly clean lips tasting hers instead of the acrid ash that had been between them before. “It’s long,” he whispered against her. “So long.”

She wrapped him in her arms, holding tight as more tears came and he buried himself in the nook under her chin. She let him cry as her own tears came silently. “I’m right here.” She ran her fingers through his hair, slowly picking out the ash as the hitches in his breath slowed. “I’m not going anywhere.”


End file.
